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Monday, September 22, 2014

Google Glass

The Library Company had a real
treat in July: a visit from Google Glass. The new eyewear—which is still hard
to get in many places—comes equipped with audio and video recording technology,
and a range of software applications. It’s the next wave of the computing
revolution—a camera and pc at the tip of your eyebrow!

How can archives, historic sites,
and researchers use Google Glass? That was the question public historian Dr.
Liz Covart asked early American historians visiting Philadelphia this summer. We
jumped at the chance to try the digital monocle and provide some answers. After
all, what better place to experiment with this new technology than Franklin’s
Library (where we still have Ben Franklin’s original electrostatic machine).

When Dr. Covart arrived, we let various
staff members and interns try out “Glass,” as the eyewear is called. We then
toured different departments, recording interviews with curators and
conservators at work. In the McLean Conservation Department, Andrea Krupp
expertly explained how she repaired rare books. In the basement, we recorded
staff members looking through the old, old card catalogue (from the 1800s!). In
Jim Green’s office, we heard about Peter Collinson’s famous copy of Maitland’s The History of London (1739), which
features a series of fascinating annotations and marginal notes about the way
London had changed through Collinson’s lifetime. These interviews were automatically
uploaded to a Google account, ready for online viewing.

It was a great demonstration of
the way that the Library Company can use new technologies to tell scholars,
students, and the informed public what we do. Even Google Glass agreed. When we
tweeted a picture of our Digital Humanities Intern Giles Holbrow facing the
famous picture of Ben Franklin in the Logan Room, Google wrote back: “Pensive
pose from two eras. This is great….”